Stop motion apparatus



June 20, 1967 J FRlCKERT 3,326,481 I STOP MOTION APPARATUS Filed Au 31, 1964 INVENTOR. l6 PHILIP J. FRICKERT 2 MIR 744m ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,326,481 STOP MOTION APPARATUS Philip J. Frickert, Spartanburg, S.C., assignor to Deering Milliken Research Corporation, Spartanburg, S.C., a corporation of Delaware Filed Aug. 31, 1964, Ser. No. 393,825 5 Claims. (Cl. 24236) This invention relates generally to the winding of unraveled tubular knit material and in particular to a stop motion apparatus to detect the winding of a triple end.

The term triple end is well known in the art and refers to the phenomena of deknitting three courses of yarn simultaneously from a tubular knit fabric. This phenomena occurs due to the adhesion of three courses of yarn together because of a defect in the knitting operation or due to a chemical treatment of the yarn prior to knitting to cause the courses to stick together when deknit. Once a triple end starts it is obvious that it can only be corrected by breaking of the yarn since all three ends will extend and be wound on the package. The triple end being deknit will normally be three courses of yarn in substantially parallel relationship since the courses in the knit fabric are substantially parallel to one another.

There have been many methods of providing crimped yarn including knitting the yarn into tubular forms to form the crimp. The crimped tubular knit yarn is then set by any suitable method such as heat setting. The set yarn is then unraveled from its tub ular condition and wound onto packages for further processing. Many times a triple end of yarn is unraveled and is wound on a package in the use of prior art winders when winding crimped yarn from a tubular knit shape. This is undesirable and this triple end of yarn must be unwound and discarded as waste. Various devices have been employed to stop the winder upon the detection of a slub in the yarn but there is no known apparatus commercially available which will detect triple ends being unknit.

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a winder which will detect the unraveling or unknitting of a triple end.

Another object of the invention is to provide a triple end detector which will detect a triple end and upon such detection will act to sever the end and cause the stoppage of the Winding apparatus winding the unraveled yarn.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a triple end catcher which is inexpensive, easy to install and efficient in operation.

Other objects and advantages of my invention will be clearly apparent as the specification proceeds to describe the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a schematic view of a winder incorporating the herein disclosed triple end catcher; and

FIGURE 2 is a blown up view of the triple end catcher.

Looking now to FIGURE 1 there is shown schematically a typical winder modified to incorporate the new and improved triple end catcher 10. For the sake of illustration We have shown only one complete winding position but it is Within the scope of the invention to manifold as many positions as desired.

The tubular knit material 12 in which the yarn crimp has been set is placed in a suitable container 14 from which a strand of yarn 16 is guided to the yarn package 18. The yarn package 18 is rotably supported in arms 20 which are journaled to shaft 22. In operative position the yarn package 18 is driven by drive rolls 24 fixed to shaft 26 which is driven by suitable drive means, not shown. Also connected to drive means, not shown, and synchronized in speed to the drive rolls are barrel earns 28 to traverse the yarn guide 30 to evenly distribute the unraveled yarn 16 onto the package 18.

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In normal operation the yarn package 18 is driven by the drive roll 24 and wraps the yarn 16 thereon. The yarn 16, as it unravels from the tubular knit material 12 in the container 14, passes through and around a guide and tension control member 32 and over the stop motion lever 34 maintaining it in the down position, thereby maintaining the stop motion device 36 deactivated. From the stop motion lever 34 the yarn 16 passes through notch 38 in the triple end catcher 10, through a pig tail guide 40, through a notch 42 in the traversing yarn guide 30 and onto the yarn package 18.

Looking now in particular to FIGURE 2 the triple end catcher 10 is shown in detail. In its simplest form it consists of a metal plate 44 with the semi-circular yarn slot 38 therein. The depth and diameter of slot 38 is preselected so that it approximates the diameter of the yarn which is being Wound. On both sides of the yarn slot 38 are slots 46 and 48. Located across a corner of the slots 46 and 48 and welded or otherwise secured to plate 44 are knife blade segments 50 and 52 with the sharp edges 54 and 56 facing away from the bottom of the slots 46 and 48.

In operation, if a multiple end or triple end is unraveled from the tubular knit material, one or more of these ends of yarn, such as 17 and 19, will be forced out of the yarn slot into the slots 46 and 48 causing the yarn ends to be cut on the knife blades 54 and 56 and at the same time due to the sudden increased friction the end of yarn 16 in yarn slot 38 will also be broken. When the yarns 16, 17 and 19 breaks, the stop motion lever 34 pivots unwardly since it is no longer held down by the yarn and actuates any suitable stop device, such as that schematically represented at 36 to cause linkage 58 to rotate the package 18 away from the drive rolls 24 thereby stopping the winding of the triple end. The operator can then 10- cate the triple end, untangle the yarn end, piece up a new end, and restart the winder. It should be noted that the triple end catcher 10 prevented the winding of any of the triple end on the package 18 thereby eliminating the necessity of unwinding yarn from the package 18 to remove any triple end wound thereon.

As herein disclosed the triple end catcher operates very efficiently to detect the winding of a triple end and prevent winding such end on a yarn package. It can further be seen that the herein disclosed triple end catcher is simple, inexpensive to manufacture and can be readily installed on conventional winding equipment.

Although I have described in detail the preferred embodiment of my invention I contemplate that many changes may be made without departing from the scope or spirit of my invention and I desire to be limited only by the claims.

That which is claimed is:

1. A Winder for winding crimped yarn from a tubular knit material: a supply of tubular knit material, a yarn package, at least one strand of yarn connected between said yarn package and said supply of tubular knit material, means rotating said yarn package to unravel yarn from said supply of tubular knit material and wind it on said yarn package, and stop motion means responsive to the detection of the unraveling of a triple end of yarn to cease winding of yarn on said package, said stop motion means being actuated by the breakage of said strand of yarn.

2. The structure of claim 1 wherein said stop motion means includes a plate member, said plate member having a notch therein having a width substantially equal to the diameter of one of said yarn strands and said plate member further includes means to sever a triple end of yarn if it attempts to run through said notch.

3. A triple en-d detector for a yarn winding apparatus comprising: a plate member, a notch in said plate mem- I 3 her having a width substantially equal to the diameter of a preselected diameter yarn, slot means on both sides of said notch; and severing means operably associated with each of said slots to sever a strand of yarn which falls in said slot.

'4. The method of winding crimped yarn'from a tubular knit condition comprising the steps: unraveling and winding strands of yarn from a tubular knit material, sensing the yarn being unraveled and wound to detect the presence of a triple end of yarn, and severing said yarn to cease the step of winding said yarn when a triple end of yarn is detected.

5. The structure of claim 2 wherein said means to sever said triple end includes a pair of slots in said plate memher, one of said pair of slots being on one side of said notch and the other slot of said pair of slots being on the other side of said notch and knife blade means operably associated with said pair of slots to sever a strand of yarn which falls into said slots.

References Cited I UNITED STATES PATENTS 787,599 4/ 1905 Whitney 24236 1,988,350 1/1935 Bitter et al. 28-64 FRANK J. COHEN, Primary Examiner.

STANLEY N. GILREATH, WILLIAM S. BURDEN,

Assistant Examiners. 

1. A WINDER FOR WINDING CRIMPED YARN FROM A TUBULAR KNIT MATERIAL: A SUPPLY OF TUBULAR KNIT MATERIAL, A YARN PACKAGE, AT LEAST ONE STRAND OF YARN CONNECTED BETWEEN SAID YARN PACKAGE AND SAID SUPPLY OF TUBULAR KNIT MATERIAL, MEANS ROTATING SAID YARN PACKAGE TO UNRAVEL YARN FROM SAID SUPPLY OF TUBULAR KNIT MATERIAL AND WIND IT ON SAID YARN PACKAGE, AND STOP MOTION MEANS RESPONSIVE TO THE DETECTION OF THE UNRAVELING OF A TRIPLE END OF YARN TO CEASE WINDING OF YARN ON SAID PACKAGE, SAID STOP MOTION MEANS BEING ACTUATED BY THE BREAKAGE OF SAID STRAND OF YARN. 